Concrete container wall



8, 1935. w. o, BRAssERT 2,016,886

' CONCRETE CONTAINER WALL Filed Dec. 29, 1952 Inventor,

" Walter 0. Brasseri,

y my Patented Oct. 8, 1935 UNITED STATES.

PATENT OFFICE CONCRETE CONTAINER WALL Walter 0. Brassert, Kalamazoo, Mich.

Application December 29, 1932, Serial No. 649,363

6 Claims. (01. 726) This application for a patent is a continuation in part of my application for patent for a Method of coating concrete silo blocks, filed January 12, 1931, Serial Number 508,107, and a continuation in part of my application for a Concrete silo wall member filed January 12, 1931, Serial Number 508,108,pa.tented January 3, 1933, No. 1,892,864.

The object of this invention is to provide concr ete containers with inside walls that are permanently protected by an acid and moisture resisting material that will prevent the deterioration of the concrete through the action of ensilage or other chemically active materials, located within the container.

A further object of this invention is to heat the inside Wall of a container or a container block or member, made out of concrete, to drive out moisture from the pores and recesses of the concrete and so warm the concrete that molten parafiin, asphalt or the like will be drawn into said pores and recesses by capillary action and will fill said pores and recesses due tothe absence of moisture, and the parafiin or asphalt'or like material will also form a coating or covering over the inside surface of container or container member, and this coating or covering will bond with the parailin or asphalt or like material which fills the pores and recesses.

A still further object is to uniformly spread the coating on the inside wall of the container so all portions of the concrete will be fully covered.

Another object is so to roughen the edges of concrete silo blocks that a cement jointing material will be retained in the joints although the roughened surfaces may be coated with an acid resistant.

The above objects and other objects which will hereinafter appear are accomplished by means illustrated more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation of a silo built out of block members, the near wall of the silo being broken away showing part of the back inside wall in elevation and partial vertical section;

Fig. 2 is a similar view of a one-piece or monolithic silo;

Fig. 3 is a diagram in elevation, of a block heating and coating machine;

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of a concrete block formed with rough mortar-joint edges which will hold the mortar in the joint even though the surfaces of the rough portions are coated with 5 paraffin, and.

Fig. 5 is a fragment magnified of a concrete silo block treated with para'ffin and showing how the surface coating is bonded to wax portions entering and filling the pores and recesses of the concrete. 5

Like characters of reference indicate like parts in the several views.

The silo walls shown in Fig; 1 are formed out of preformed concrete slabs or blocks 6, with cement mortar joints 4 and strengthened by out- 10 side hoops 3, in the usual manner, and is typical of many silos now in use throughout the country.

Fig. 2 is typical of a monolithic or substantial ly monolithic silo, many of which are also in use at the present time. Practically all these con- 15 crete silos and tanks are deteriorating through the action of the ensilage or various chemically active materials stored therein. Nothing has heretofore been developed that will effectively arrest this progressive destruction and that can be 20 applied conveniently and economically.

By my invention the inside of the walls of concrete containers are proofed with asphalt, parafiin or other wax-like material at any time after they have been constructed; Actual ex- 25 perience has shown that this proofing positively stops further deterioration, even in old silos that have become deeply etched and pitted through the chemical action of ensilage.

In proofing containers the walls of the con- 30 tainers are cleaned by means of brooms or wire brushes, to remove any loose particles, and, in the case of an old silo, to remove any ensilage that sticks to the wall. Next, an area of the wall is heated by the direct flame of a blow torch or similar device. This is continued until all moisture is driven out of the concrete at and near the surface, so that the capillary openings are free to attract and receive the molten acid resistant material. In the meanwhile a quantity of parafiin or asphalt has been melted in a pail, and has been kept at a temperature close to the boiling point. This liquid acid resistant material is now applied to the preheated wall area by brushing or spraying and the capillary action of the concrete carries it well below the surface. There it finally comes in contact with the cool inner portion of the wall and it begins to solidify. This process of solidification continues toward the 50 outside as the wall cools and in this manner all openings in the wall, large or small, become filled with the solid acid resistant and these fillings 9 are bonded with a coating Ill covering the inner side of the wall. Sometimes it is not possible to touch every point of the heated area at one application, especially when applying the molten material with a paint brush; also, frequently, portions of the heated area cool off before they are contacted with the molten material and the material does not penetrate well. For these reasons it is necessary to go over the area a second time with the torch, after the material has begun to solidify. This will remelt the material and will cause it to spread from places where there is a surplus to places where there is an insufiicient amount or none, and the material will also penetrate more deeply in places where it' cooled too fast and became solid on touching the surface. This same process is repeated on the next adjoining area, until the entire wall or as much of it as desired has been covered and bonded with acid resisting material.

While I have herewith described my invention of the pores and recesses of concrete wall or wall members filled with wax-like material which is bonded with a surface coating of the same ma terial in its application to containers such as tanks and silos, I fully realize that the same method can also be applied and will be found valuable in many other cases where concrete surfaces require protection. I refer, for instance, to concrete walls and floors in breweries and milk houses, or in canning factories. In all such cases destruction is brought about by the chemical action of liquids which come in contact with the surface of concrete and are absorbed into it by capillary attraction.

In rendering the inside surface of concrete silo wall members resistant to the action of ensilage juice thru infusion with a material such as paraffin, I have heretofore found it necessary toremove this ensilage acid and moisture resistant material from the edges of wall member before same could be used in silo construction, so that the joint-filling cement could bond-with the concrete wall members. I accomplish this purpose by subjecting the edges of wall members to heat afterthe surface had been infused with paraffin as described in the two applications for patent of which this is a continuation.

I have now discovered that under certain conditions it is not necessary to remove the material in question from the edges of the wall members. These conditions exist when the wall member is made in such a way that the edges are left very rough as shown in Fig. 4. Then, if the infusion is brought about in the'manner described in my application No. 508,107, there will not be enough paraffin on the surface of the concrete to smooth over the pits and ridges in the concrete, and the joint-filling cement will become interlocked with the rough edges of adjoining wall members so that it will be firmly held in place, in spite of the fact that the film of paraffin prevents any actual bonding to take place between the surface of wall member and the joint-filling cement.

In actual practice I use wall members made of dry mixed concrete on a tamping machine. In concrete of this consistency there is considerable unfilled space between the small particles of sand and gravel, and this is particularly noticeable at the surfaces and edges. The wall members so formed I run through the waxing machine shown in Fig. 3, being careful to preheat them sufiicient- 1y on plate 5 and to have the paraffin in pan 1 at a high temperature so that only a slight film of paraffin remains on the surface when the wall member has moved up the inclined plate 8 after emerging from the bath of molten paraffin. In the wall members so treated it can be seen that the cavities between particles of aggregate at the edges shown in Fig. 4, are coated, but not filled,

with paraffin. 5

The wall members, after coming up the draining plate 8 are immediately available for silo construction without being subjected to the reheating of the edges as described in my application No. 508,107. This effects a considerable sav- 10 ing of heat and makes the necessary apparatus less complicated. It is particularly valuable where manufactured or natural gas or cheap electric current is not available, as the heating of the edges can only be accomplished convenl5 'iently by means of gas burners or electric heating elements carefully set in proper relation to the edges of container wall members. On the other hand, the preheating of the wall members and the heating of the paraffin bath can be accomplished by a coal, coke or oil burner such as can be set up and operated in any locality.

The silo is constructed of these wall members in the usual way known to the art. The joints between wall members are then filled by using a mixture of cement and water of a rather stiff consistency. This cement mortar can best be forced into the joints with a trowel. After it has set a short while, the surplus cement can all be washed off the parafiin infused surface of wall members with water, leaving the joint filled with a plug or strip of cement, which perfectly interlocks and interlaces with the edges of wall members on both sides.

I claim:

l. A concrete wall having its capillaries and recesses extending within the wall from its inner side filled with an acid and moisture resistant, and having a coating of the same resistant over said side bonded with the resistant contained in 40 said capillaries and recesses.

2. A concrete wall member having the capillaries and recesses adjacent the internal side of the wall member filled with an acid and moisture resistant as a clincher coat and having a coating of the same resistant over said side bonded with the resistant contained in said capillaries and recesses to form a tightly adhering coat extending over and into the concrete.

3. A concrete silo having the capillaries and recesses adjacent that side of the silo which is exposed to ensilage acid and moisture filled with a molten paraffin or asphalt resistant, and a coating of the same resistant over said side bonded with the resistant contained in said capillaries and recesses.

4. In a concrete container which may have its inner face exposed to a concrete destroying agent joined individual wall members having rough edges at the joints, said wall members having their capillaries and recesses adjacent their inner faces filled with a moisture and acid resistant material, and having a coating of said resistant over said faces bonded with the resistant material contained in said capillaries and recesses, and a joint filling material in the joints between the individual wall members held in place by interlocking with the rough edges of said adjoining wall members.

5. A silo wall formed of a plurality of concrete members each having rough joint edges and each member being infused on its inner surface with paraffin or other material protecting the wall members against the action of ensilage juices, joints between the wall members filled with ceface and its joint-edges with parafiin or asphalt, cement filling the joints between the wall members and retained by the rough edges of the joints and a coating of paraffin or asphalt bonded to said infused coating on the inner surfaces of the 5 members.

WALTER O. BRASSERT. 

